There are millions of automobile tires which are disposed of in the United States and which have become a serious environmental problem. The tires rapidly fill up land dumps, do not deteriorate in storage, and introduce problems in incineration.
The applicant is aware of the following U.S. patents which have been directed to finding uses for the discarded tires:
______________________________________ Inventor(s) U.S. Pat. No. ______________________________________ Martin 3,764,446 Way et al 3,848,853 Roehner 3,928,701 Bruner et al 3,934,540 Moore 4,002,434 Pulsifer 4,080,793 Anderson 4,139,319 Doring 4,142,821 Bruner et al 4,186,913 Lederbauer 4,785,577 Thiac 5,011,327 McMean et al 5,056,961 Murray 5,094,905 Suhayda 5,178,489. ______________________________________
While these patents are useful, they have not been generally implemented and the environmental problem continues to worsen. Further these patents do not disclose nor suggest, as does the present invention, the segmenting the tire into members which no longer retain the tubular or semi-tubular structure of the tire and using these members to form a retaining wall.
The applicant is also aware of the following U.S. Patents which disclose retaining walls formed from solid blocks.
______________________________________ Inventor(s) U.S. Pat. No. ______________________________________ van Weele 4,407,612 McNinch, Jr. et al 4,592,678 Forsberg 4,825,619 McKinney 5,046,898. ______________________________________
The blocks are inherently different from the resilient segments of automobile tire but are cited to show the construction of retaining walls.
Thus, a need exists to find a utilitarian and cost effective use for automobile tires.